Mohave County miner., 1887-03-05
GOING A-GUDDLING.

Dominic Forbes was not In % particu-
lnrly angelic frame OF mind on that FRI
day afternoon. Very far from It. Friday
has always been my unlucky day, any
how. II fate, as frequently happens,
has any unpleasantness in storo for me,
1t is sure 70 reserve |. till Friday.
But Dominic Forbes was, ss we boys
phrased 1t. III, tear ON TINT particular
Friday forenoon; something had gone
radically wrong with him. Everybody
knew that the dominic was deeply In
love with farmers fair daughter, and
that the courtship OF Duncan Gray was
nothing to his in vicissitude, for at one
time bonnie Jeanie Johnstone smiled on
him, and at another she laughed at him,
And whatever Jear,ie's mood was, we
poor pupils became the resultant; II was
fog -fog-fog all day when Jeanic was
saucy, but when Jeanie was kind every
thing we did pleased our dominic.
As a rule, at all ordinary times Dom
inie Forbes was tartar. Squcers was
eaint to him. And the tawse--a piece
OF leather bride cut at the end into two
fingers and hardened In tie fre--got lit
tie rest. When 1t was put away for q
time the "spengie" cane, or rattan. took
its place, and l do not know which
makes the palms and fingers tinglc the
most.
A b;. Of masher was Dominic Forbes,
especially on Sunday, when he wore a
swallow.tailed coat, with morsel of
crimson silk handkerchief sticking out
Of the pocket--he kept an ordinary white
one in breast pocket for nasal duty
and his club-foot boot, with It's extraor-
dinary thickness Of sole. shining like half
a-yard Of polished Whiiby jet. The
donninie's hair was as black as his boot,
and his side whiskers glittered, like boat
men beetles.
Now Saturday was kind Of mixed
day with us boys at Bellfield school; a
day OF grief In the morning, because the
work OF the week had to be recapitu-
lated, and we wezo all sure to be
thrasbed; and CT JOY in the afternoon,
because It was half-holiday and the
morrow was Sunday.
But 10. to our great astonishment, on
this particular Saturday the dominic
was as sweet in temper as tabby cat
with five young kittens.
Jeanie had been kind. That was the
solution Of the riddle.
But there Inc was, dressed in his Sab
bath clothes, silk handkerchief and
polished club foot boot, and positively q
white necktie! t-~
And he frequently smiled softly TO
himseif--wandered little in his talk.
but looked generally angelic,
blundered good deal over my ir-
regular verbs. i gave single verbs TO
plural nomina:ives and murdered my
past participlcs. But dominic merely
smiled and corrected me.
l went back to my seat, walking on
feathers, seemingly.
had fayorite fat mahogany ruler,
and got round to my table in time to
find mischievous Dayie Law burning
one end Of it between the bars Of the
crate.
Ny JOY was turned to wrath. drew
forth the ruler and smote Davie with
the frey end Of il, javelin fashion. 1t
went half way down his threat, sup
pose. and loosened some OF his teeth.
Davie yelled, and the dominic appeared
and found Dayie splitting blood and
cinders. But even this did not disturb
his equanimity. He merely said, @You
shouldn't have done that, Gordon"
Such is love--when Chloe is kindl
We were not a bit surprised to get
away that day two hours sooner than
usual. r
We rushed pell-meIl, almost breaking
each others ribs in the doorway.
We yelled and shouted for JOY, and
flung our Highland bonnets high in air.
When the exuberance Of our ecstasy
had somewhat subsided, Willie jamie
son--.poor lad! he was killed soon after
this b. his fathers horse falling on him
stood up on the top OF stone and
shouted:
@Wbo viii go s-guddlingg" -...
What he really did say was: aFa'll
gag guddlin" But you see am polite
enough to translate his words into Eng
iish.
Now, Willie was the biggest boy in
CUR set, and we respected him accord
ingly and looked up to him almost rever-
entially. Even box ON the ears from
Willie was considered an honor and q
condescension on his part,
"Who will 20 a-guddlingT
Fifty arms waved in the air at once:
fifty treble voices rang out @Tll gang!
III gang. III gang!7
But Willie had no intention of inyit-
ing the snallfry--the nippers from 8
tot. .... ....a
Io rushed through their ranks,
,lashing them aside in ali di.
rections, like sturgeon in
shoal OF haddocks, and made his
way TO the spot where Davie Law and
I, with our jackets of, were having it
out in downright earnest.
lie soon settled the business by pitch
ing into ,is both, and when we arose
from the ground
-Now, will ye gang guddlin'Y" said
Willie.
Gang guddlin', Wouldn't we. just 2"
On went our jackets, and of after
Willie went Davie and /; my arm round
Davies waist; his arm round my neck;
he telling me he liked me better than any
other boy in the school, and assuring
Davie that / had always quite loved
him.
On our way 70 Den burn, where we